We recently set-up a new local planning authority account on the Portal – the London Legacy Development Corporation
The LLDC is responsible for the regeneration legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The new LPA gained the full range of planning functions that would normally be available to a local planning authority, including plan making powers, on 1 October 2012.
The Portal has been updated so that applications can now be made to the LLDC and also displays correct content when carrying out searches.
Over the weekend we made a small but important update to one of the Portal’s PDF forms.
The update was to the Extant Permissions form to cater for the one-year extension to the policy that was mentioned in the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement (no longer available online) announced on 6 September. Read more…
I’m off for a couple of days r’n’r on a golf course in Spain.
Fortunately for you folks the team will step in and fill my shoes until I return.
Be ready for vastly improved grammar and well written content.
Don’t worry normal service will resume when I get back on Monday.
Hasta la vista.
I’m happy to report that the new pay and submit process went live last night.
A quick reminder about this change: previously payment happened as a separate step to submission. By asking users to ‘pay’ and ‘submit’ at the same time it brings our system into line with industry best practice and makes submitting applications faster and more straightforward.
Just to be clear: we have not removed any payment options. We’ve just made the steps to submitting an application easier.
Everything appears to be in order with the change but do let me know if you see anything amiss.
Here’s a short video highlighting the new change.
I’m sorry to say that a business based in the north of England is selling advertising in a trade directory in the Manchester region on the basis of a relationship with the Planning Portal.
This is not the first time this has happened and we take this very seriously.
To be clear no-one sells advertising on or for the Portal other than our staff here in Bristol.
If you are approached please let me and your local trading standards office know ASAP.
The planning department of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has become the latest local planning authority to go paperless.
Reduced desk and filing space from a recent office move, combined with the ever-present need to make savings led Rotherham to explore greater and more innovative uses of technology to achieve efficiencies.
The implementation of a document management system (DMS) has now drastically changed the way the planning department works within Rotherham. Read more…
In this age of efficiency and austerity I challenge you to describe what the Planning Portal service means to you, your business or planning and building in general in one word only.
I’m delighted to let you know that this Thursday evening we will be rolling out the final part of the current 1APP improvements project.
The Portal will be unavailable between 20:00 and 22:00 on Thursday 20th September.
It’s been a long Summer (and Spring) of system improvements – all based on suggestions and feedback from users, both applicant and LPA. Read more…
I’d like to welcome our new Planning Minister Nick Boles to DCLG and look forward to an early opportunity to spread the Portal message.
Here’s the DCLG ministerial team on the DCLG website.
We have a campaign planned this year in support of channel shift – in other words moving away from traditional routes of engagement with customers (e.g. face-to-face and phone) and using the web instead.
We’re going to be working primarily with local planning authorities on this campaign – stay tuned for more information on campaigns aimed at planning and building professionals.
We’ve got a series of articles planned on how local planning authorities are increasingly becoming paperless to save money and carbon. The first will be with you next week.
The articles will look at related strategies such as increasing use of mobile technologies like smart phones and tablet computers as well as how local authorities are encouraging applicants and customers to switch to online channels.
We’ll also be looking at what really happens in a paperless planning office – and we’ll make sure officers from the local planning authority concerned are on hand to respond to any questions from readers.
Finally, in October we’ll be running an event in Bristol with local authorities to explore how we can improve links and messaging between LPA websites and the Portal (and vice versa) to improve the user experience for our shared customers. If this works well we’ll be looking at the opportunity to run more around the country.
In the meantime, if you work at a local authority which has implemented a channel shift strategy and would like to share your story, please drop us an email or simply post a comment below.
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